Quote:
Originally Posted by Lisa
Hello,
My 18 year old son had a 15 now 16 year old girlfriend. At first her parents loved him and would let him spend the night at their place for several months. They gave their daughter the birth control patch. Now for what ever reason they are pressing charges for statutory rape against him. His defense is offering a plea bargin of tier 1 *** offender and 6 months probation. My questions; Apparently the law regarding tier 1 and tier 2 may be changing where everyone would be classified as tier 3. So what good would this do if he did plea bargin? His defense states that he would not have a chance in a jury trial. But what about the parents whom allowed the *** acts in their home and even provided her with birth control. According to her my space she has had other boys spend the night and have intercourse when she was only 14 while the parents were there. This is all stated in her blogs on myspace. Should i talk to the DA about the parents putting their only child in danger? They did after all give my son permission to date their daughter and have sexual relations with her. Shouldn't they also be held accountable and be punished? Currently we are using the public defender. We don't know what to do? Thank You
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I understand your frustration with the situation and how unfair it seems. One thing I wanted to make clear---the parents do not have the authority to "allow" a law to be broken. In other words, if they allowed their child to smoke pot---that doesn't change the fact that it is still illegal and criminal charges may follow.
I agree with you that the situation they have created with their child is child endangerment--and the fact that it was allowed and apparently encouraged should he part of your sons defense---although it doesn't EXCUSE the fact that he is a legal adult engaging in statutory rape. I guess the way the law sees it, if the parents of the minor child aren't acting as adults, then the other party participating in the act is the only one left to hold accountable.
Also, regarding the my space page--I was actually reading online where a defendant who was drinking and driving and who was arrested for nearly killing a woman posted a picture of himself a week or two after the accident on a my space page wearing a orange prison jumpsuit and stripes with the word REMORSEFUL written above his head. He was also holding beer and a can of Red Bull in the photo. The prosecutor successfully used this to prove to a judge that the defendant was not remorseful and was in fact making a mockery of the egregious act he committed.The result was, instead of a suspended sentence and probation, he went straight to jail for two years.
However, for this type of defense, you are going to have to hire an attorney. The public defender doesn't have the resources available to pursue this much of a rigorous defense.
Sadly, the biggest victim of all is this little girl whose parents allowed her to be, for all intents and purposes, raped by an adult male ---who did so with their dispensation.
Good luck.